Monstrumfuhrer by Edward M. ErdelacMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Dr. Mengele has discovered Frankenstein's journal and is using it to create an army of invincible Nazi warriors. Jotham Podczaski goes north to find the only thing that can stop him: Frankenstein's original creation...
Edward Erdelac earned the golden ticket from me by virtue of The Merkabah Rider series. When he asked if I'd give this a read, it was an automatic Yes.
In Monstrumfuhrer, Erdelac juxtaposes the atrocities of the holocaust with the horrors of the reanimated dead. Jotham and his brother are rousted from their hiding place in a sympathetic woman's attic and dragged away to Auschwitz. Mengele takes an interest in Jotham, making him his errand boy, while Eliazar joins the resistance. Once Jotham sees Mengele's true colors, he manages to escape and heads north.
Erdelac's writing has improved by leaps and bounds since the Merkabah Rider series. Much like I thought The Dark Knight was too good to be a super hero movie and Batman was the weakest part, Monstrumfuhrer is almost too good of an account of the holocaust to have Frankenstein's monster in it.
Not that things don't get interesting once the Creature shows up. It turns out he has reasons of his own for coming back to civilization. The latter part of the book echoes the latter part of Mary Shelley's classic. It wasn't quite what I expected but was damn satisfying.
The writing was great but I thought maybe a little too much time was spent at Auschwitz. Or the Frankenstein elements could have been eliminated altogether. Even so, I enjoyed Monstrumfuhrer quite a bit. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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